New Life Games Tech Forums

This week i bought a Bally E-2332.  A tall machine with a
EM 7 segment scoring system on top.   This is my first slot
machine.  I collect and repair pins & vids (mostly Atari vectors)
from the late 70's to early 80's so I figured this would be
right up my alley.

I have a few questions. 

On the lower right side of the cab there are two locks where the cams
may engage separate micro switches.  Currently the locks are in position
where they are not in contact with the switches.  What are these for ?

Next to these switches there is a small PCB that looks like it is for
optical communications, outside the cab are two small round 'windows'.

This game has a coin comparator.  Can it be removed and the original
micro switch put back?  Looks like it had one at one time.  I don't know
anything about these and for troubleshooting, it eliminates one more thing.

Last question...

Unit powers up but is non responsive to test button or coin up.
The display is "8.0.3.1.0.1"  sometimes the rightmost digit will
toggle to a .6 and then back to .1  Looking in the file section
I didn't see anything for a code '80'.

TIA guys.... I have to get back to work.

I am not an expert on these machines, but the 80 code with all of the decimal places lit indicates that you are in test mode. It is supposed to clear upon closing the door, so I would check the door switch circuitry.

One of the key switches is a jackpot lockup reset and also accesses bookkeeping mode. I'm not sure about the second. However, the door lock should have an electrical switch contact when it is turned counter-clockwise. If it doesn't, then that second key may be performing that function. It may be a reset for the progressive (just guessing).

I'm sure that one of our experts will jump in here soon. Hope this helps.

check your mother board (board on the left wall of the machine) should have 5 eproms down the middle of the board - the last is a P2 prom - sounds like it is either missing or the wrong one for the P1.

I do get a code 50 when I close the door switch, but 803101
comes back if I cycle the power or press reset.

All the IC's are present and accounted for, nice that they
are all socket'd !  The PCB has what looks like a factory sticker
that says E2279-10 s/n 16, slot badge says E2332-10 on the side
of the cab.  It's possible the MPU was swapped out.

Here's a rundown of the EPROM/PROMS and what's on the stickers.

U9
755-135
565-14
M1


U10
755-136
565-14
M2

U11
755-137
565-14
M3

U12
6A2470

U13
2390
2x Prog

Proms;

U19
E-751-21

U8
E-751-3

U17
E-751-27

Is there a cross reference list to indicate what
E/Proms go with what game ?

All in all, the PCB's look clean, no hacks, poor soldering
or cold solder joints.  I'll keep plugging away...

Some success ! 

My 5VDC was fluctuating, so I robbed a 7805 out of another PCB. 
Still no joy, removed boards one at a time until my 5V rail came back.  It was the
optical PCB on the lower right side of the cab.  Now when I power it up I get
some tones (I didn't know I had sound)  Sometimes it plays a simple 'charge!'
or plays a warble, probably a tilt/attendant call.  This varies with a power cycle
or close door switch.

I  just got it into test mode, so I have some reading to do.

Went into test 2, the bulbs would walk through their tests, but I had no solenoids.
So I looked into the 50v section.  The delay relay behind the hopper wasn't energizing.
I know it supposed to be a R/C time delay relay, but I can't tell them visually apart.
I jumped the contacts on the relay and now have solenoids.  The upper mechanical
7 segment display is now working as well. 

It's still not working right.  When it boots up or if I do a test 1 game ready test, it seems
to go into a tilt/attendant mode with a alternating waring tone.  Sometimes the 7 seg
display will reset to blank/black or when it errors it will display;

647,X17.30
0X3,995.X4

X=blank/black

I know on Williams pins I've worked on they would display similar codes
specific to the game and rom versions while in test mode.  I guess I gotta
figure whats putting it into the tilt mode rightaway.  I wonder if it has
something to do with the two key switches on the side.  From what I read
these may be for jackpot reset or attendant payout reset, but documentation
is vague and says refer to machine specific manual that I can't find.

This machine has come along way today :-)  but now it's time for rest.

the 50v is controlled by a triac/reg on the MPU (DK3? - i forget the part number) located top right area on the mpu.   also the delay relay at the hopper connector.

Karma for Fox !  That transistor had a bad solder job from a previous OP.
Trace was lifted so I did a temp fix and now I don't have to bypass the
delay relay to get my solenoids back.  My tilt problem still exists, when you
power the game and reset, it still lights the tilt light and gives a warning
tone.  I can get into the tests and run them, so I know the MPU is doing
it's job.  I don't know why its erroring out.

So I decided to move on to the reel test and get error code 1666.  I
can't see the card reader bulbs light up like they do with my buddies
E-1209.  I looked at the diagrams to see why I'm not getting 50V to
the bulbs.  I measured the voltage at the red molex connector at the
reel mech and I have voltage at the correct points when I go into test 5.

I mapped out the wiring on my 3 wide reel mech and found its wired as
a 5V with the IR style opto's.  It doesn't even have a 50V feed from
the mech mounted molex connector to the reader cards.  All the card reader
cards are tied to the 5V Vcc for the ir leds.  But, it has a non-dip switch control
card and 50V style reader cards.

I figure that someone took a old style reader control board and reader
cards and put them in a newer style chassis.  Argggg.  I've studied the
diagrams and I could modify the wiring to isolate the 50V to feed the lights, but
I don't know if my slot is expecting a reel mech with a card reader control
board that has a dip switch style board or not.

So my question is this... How do I know what is the correct reel mech for my slot ?
Is it light bulbs or IR ?  Should the control card have dips or not ?


The guy we got these machines from didn't know anything about them, so I figure
whoever sold them to him may have just put whatever parts in them to
make the look complete.  Being a newbe, I didn't know what to look for.







 

OK, well 5 steps forward, two steps back.

Last night I finished the rewire on the reel mech. Optic board lights up in the
reel test and the digital display changes as I turn the reels !  This also helped
in clearing the error/tilt code on power up. 

The slot now appears to power up fine but when I coin it up and pull the handle
the reel lights just blink for a second and then it goes into tilt. As a test, I temporarily
jumped the board so the reader lights stay on all the time.  Now I can coin up, take a
pull, and it works for the most part (I even got it to pay out).

Coin Comparator, evil devil....  Mine works about once in every 20 coins.  This is very
frustrating for troubleshooting.   I tried removing it, just using a micro switch to
coin it up, but that didn't work.  By using switch test 3 I was able to identify what
wire combination would give me 00001 (credit) and  00120 (coin jamb).  But in normal game mode they didn't
do anything.   I guess I just don't understand how they work.  I'll buy a new one, but
someone will have to help with the pinout for the mech & coin door.

What kind of coin comparator do I need, and where can I find the
pinout & diagram for the coin door ?

While waiting for parts to come in, I replaced the agitator star
in my hopper & put in a quarter disc.  What a mess that was.
Acetone worked well for cleaning up the goo!

My 7 seg progressive display quit working and once some chips came in
I replaced them, but still no joy.  Got the scope & logic probe out and I
had signals all over the place, the IC's weren't bad.

I figured it may have been a memory glitch, so I pulled out the 5101's
for a few minutes and put them back in.

Powered up the game and the display blanked itself out.  It's working again.

So if your 7 seg mechanical display is being weird, try clearing the memory
before you put parts toward it, worked for me.

Now I'm back to where I was at step one, error  803101 (see top of post)  Well
the last time I got it going, I was messing with different test modes & the key
switches on the side.  It got me into some kind of programing mode where if
I pushed one of the two red switches on the feature panel/progressive display, it would
change the upper or lower display values.  Once I did this, the slot worked normally.

So I'm guessing that the 803101 error was maybe telling me I had to set
the jackpot/progressive payout before the slot would be operational. 

I really didn't know what I was doing or what I programed the progressive for,
but it works fine.  For every 4 coins I put in, the lower display increments one cent,
and for every x coins the upper display increments one cent. (still gotta figure that out)

Does anyone know or have a PDF that would explain how to set these values
up properly ?  Could be real important to get the slot going if you don't know how
to do this or if this is what it take to make it play correctly.



. 

I just did it on a fluke...

I gave you another K+ for posting documentation of all of the work that you've done. It's unfortunate that we have so few members with any E-series experience. I hope you're able to clear the 803101 error permanently this time.

I was able to clear the error, just not sure exactly how I did it ;-)

While I'm waiting for parts to get my Data I/O going again (I want
to back up my proms & Eproms) I updated some pic's of my game
room & added pics of my Bally slot.  Check it out if you like;

http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/pikx.html (http://home.mchsi.com/~litterbox99/pikx.html)

Thanks for sharing your game-room pick here. I like the Trex Heli
I have a Axe Max that I like to fly. I keep saying it keeps my mind sharp.
But after 5 min of flight my mind is whooped.

I know you have had to pick your way thru that Bally E series machine pretty much on your own...
I like that dime machine also.  :131- :131-  I have one , but it's a bitch at taking the dimes. I guess because they are so light in weight.

Thanks again for the pics, I enjoyed them  :89-

Thanks for posting your pictures. :88- :71-  Cosmic Chasm was one of my favorite adaptations for the Vectrex, and Tempest was also an old favorite.